The Present


Alice’s place

Tina lay in bed smiling as she watched Louise sleep. She thought about what her life has been like the past 7 years. When she returned to New Zealand after Bette had returned home, she was lonely and inwardly a little depressed. She kept up a happy facade at work but once she was home would breakdown in tears. She had no social life to speak of her days filled with work and weekends she had regular phone calls back to the US catching up on all the gossip from her friends. The most important call was checking in with Kit on how Bette was. Bette was doing really well she was about to go back to work and had been going out with the girls occasionally.
After a few weeks Tina’s little sister Anne came up to stay with her for a couple of months which got her out of her funk. Anne being a real adrenalin junkie lives in Queenstown and works as a skydiving instructor. Anne was the bright spark Tina needed to bring her out from her dark pits of despair. All of Anne’s energy and enthosiasm couldn’t help but rub off on Tina. She’d drag Tina for bush walks in the Waitakere Ranges and even tried to teach her how to surf, which ended with Tina having to be recued by a life guard.
Having pressured Tina for years to come skydiving with her Tina finally relented and they arrived at Mercer for Tina’s first jump. To Tina’s surprise Louise the woman from the plane was taking her for her tandum jump also Anne even knew her, ‘wow it’s a small world’ she thought. They all suited up and Louise explained everything Tina needed to know then they all got in the plane. Louise and Anne were leaning back to back to each other and Tina was seated between Louise’s legs. Anne was filming the climb to 13,000ft turning moving her arm around and stuffing the camera in Tina’s nervous face with her pushing it then pulling face’s. As they approached 10,000ft Anne and Louise double checked their gear and then Louise hooked Tina up as they all got on their knees. At 13,000ft Anne opened the door, the cold wind rushing into the cabin, she looked at Tina and gave her a wink as she climbed out and hung on to the side of the plane. Louise pushed Tina to the door and leaned her out the cold wind pummeling her face as she looked at the ground below. Tina’s heart was pumping a mile a minute and thought she was going to back out of it until Louise tapped on her head and they looked at each other. Louise nodded as to say are you ready at her and Tina nodded back as to say yes I’m ready. She did a 3 count and then the three bodies went tumbling away from the plane. Tina felt a gush of exhilaration come over her body as the wind whistled in her ears. Louise was spinning them around then she’d stop and play to the camera. Anne would come closer and grab Tina’s hands and motion for her to give the thumbs up. Before she knew it she felt a jerk on her legs and the descent slowing as she watched Anne fall and go out of her sight. She looked up to see a bright rainbow coloured canopy above her ‘whew it opened’ she thought.
Louise said in her ear “so how did you like that”
“That was ***** awesome” she hollered.
Louise:”So are you up for some more spins”
Tina:”***** yeah”
Louise pulled down hard on the right toggle and they started doing a fast right hand spin. Then after they had done a couple she raised her arm back up and did the same with the left. They talked a little on the rest of the descent and at 1,000ft Louise prepared for them to land. It was a perfect landing and Anne had been running around filming for the best shot. Once she was unhooked Tina gave Louise a big hug and then Anne, then jumped around all excited “Wow I’m definately doing that again sis.”
Anne:”Any time” she smiled. “You think that’s awesome, you should try it nude.”
Louise: chimed in “Mmm yeah” as Tina blushed
Tina: “Are you for real, your pulling my leg right”
They both looked at her and laughed and then looked at each other with guilty and knowing looks on their faces.
Anne: trying to contain her laughter “Yes Tina we’ve never done that before”
Tina:”No *****, you have”

After that day Tina learned how to skydive and became really good friends with Louise. When Shane, Dana and Alice confirmed they were coming over for Christmas Louise invited them all to her families place for their traditional Christmas hangi. Tina wasn’t quite sure what that was but excepted none the less. The girls arrived a week before Christmas and Tina introduced them to her new hobbie, but none of them wanted to try it themselves. She showed them the site’s and introduced them to Louise and the other friends she had made and they all went out on the town. Of course the New Zealand women weren’t immune to Shane’s charms as she hooked up with a beautiful Maori women only a half hour being at the club, “That’s our Shane” exclaimed Alice as everyone looked over in amazement.
Christmas day came and they arrived at Louise’s grandparents house for Christmas lunch/dinner. Her grandmother Mary was about 65 short brown skinned and very loving, she immediately gave all the girls a big hug welcoming them into her family. They went out to the back yard to see some men digging something up. Once the dirt was removed they saw some sacks on the mound and steam coming off it, they removed the sacks and they could see it was food. They looked at each other thinking ‘holy *****, they can’t be serious’.
Alice:”Do they expect us to eat that” she whispered.
Dana: looking at Tina “what did you get us into”
Tina:”Come on it might not be that bad”
After being introduced to every body they sat down at the table to eat. They let out a sigh of relief when Mary came over to them and told them they didn’t have to eat the hangi and that there was some BBQ and salads in the kitchen and they could help themselves. Tina did get brave and tried the potato and kumara from the hungi. She told them it was really nice and tried to get them to try it, but they declined even though the smell was tempting there tastebuds. They sat around talking with everyone for hours until it was late. They left the house with there tummys full and they all had a good time and felt they had found a new family with all the love that was abundent in the house.

As the months happily past by Tina’s year was coming to an end. She had been offered the opportunity to stay longer and she wasn’t sure what to do. She had been back to LA several time’s for business and to secretly check on Bette and she was looking forward to return for good. but she also loved her life and friends she had made over the last year and wasn’t sure she wanted to leave it yet. She came back to LA before making her decission. She pulled up to Bette’s and went to knock on the door but stopped when she saw some woman in Bette’s arms. ‘Damn’ she thought, she stayed on in New Zealand for another 6 years finding love.


Bette’s

Early Saturday morning had arrived and Bette was doing a quick clean up of the pool area for this afternoons BBQ. She was nervous and anxious to see Tina again, ‘I wonder if she’ll come over early’ she thought. She picked up the phone to ring her at Alice’s but decided against it and headed to the bedroom to change. As she emerged from the bedroom she heard someone yelling from the pool area. “Hello, Bette” the voice yelled out “are you here?” She recognised the who it was and immediately and ran out to greet her. As she approached the door she met Tina’s eyes as she was opening the patio doors, they gave each other a smile as Tina entered.

Bette: “Hey T”
Tina: “Hi Bette I’m sorry I came so early but I was hoping to talk to you before every body arrived, I hope you don’t mind.”
Bette: “Of course not, I was actually hoping you would.”

They went back outside and sat by the edge of the pool with their feet dangling in the water. There conversation led to their lives over the past 7 years. Tina told her about her life but didn’t elaborate on her relationships. They had been sitting there talking for two hours when Bette realised Louise wasn’t there and wanted ask about her.
Bette:”So where’s Louise”
Tina:”She’s with Alice, she wanted to take her to buy a new bathing suit.”
Bette:looking at Tina with a questioning look “T about Louise wh..”
Tina: interupted “Who’s her father”
Bette:”Yeah well I mean who did you have her with, if you don’t want to tell me I understand”
Tina: putting her head in her hands, ran her fingers through her hair and looked back up at Bette and smiled.
Tina:”Well you know that woman Louise I was telling you about……”